Once Upon a Timeline: A TVCU Follow-Up Quickie
What's a quickie? See this blog.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Once Upon a Time is an American fairy tale drama series that premiered on Sunday, October 23, 2011, on ABC. The show takes place in the fictional seaside town of Storybrooke, Maine, the residents of which are actually characters from various fairy tales that were transported to the "real world" town and robbed of their real memories by a powerful curse. Episodes typically feature a primary storyline in Storybrooke, as well as a secondary storyline usually from another point in a character's life before the curse was enacted. The show airs Sunday nights at 8:00 pm ET/7:00 pm CT.[3]
Once Upon a Time was created by Lost and Tron: Legacy writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.[4] Its first season received "generally favorable" reviews from critics. Metacritic gave it a score of 66 out of 100 based on 26 reviews. The pilot episode was watched by 12.93 million viewers and achieved an adult 18–49 rating/share of 4.0/10. A second season premiered on September 30, 2012 to an audience of 11.36 million. The third season began on September 29, 2013, opening to 8.52 million viewers.
A green-light for a spin-off series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland was also given by ABC, and the first season consisting of 13 episodes premiered on ABC on October 10, 2013. The spin-off, that includes crossovers with its parent show, airs at 8:00pm (ET) on Thursday nights in the 2013–14 TV schedule[5]
From me:
I've done a Fairy Tale Princesses blog already, which had one small entry on Once Upon a Time, because when I wrote it, the show was fairly new. More recently, I did a fairy tales quickie, in which I listed the magical realms of Once Upon a Time. But today I'm covering the timeline, which may not be completely accurate, but is a best guess based on in-story information. It should be noted that the fairy tales that happened in the realms are counterpart events of events that really happened in the TVCU. In fact, the Enchanted Forest realm had the fairy tales happening long after they happened in the TVCU, which provides some evidence to support a theory that the OUAT realms might be doppelganger tulpa type realities, that came to life by the imaginations of children from the real world. And in fact, in the more recent episodes, we learn that Neverland indeed was a realm that only existed in the dreams of children until Peter Pan.
Chronology: (Dates relative from the TVCU, but setting is Enchanted Forest unless otherwise noted.)
c. 1829--"Think Lovely Thoughts"--Malcolm abandons his son Rumplestilskin to live in Neverland as Peter Pan.
c. 1869--"Good Form"--Killian and Liam Jones lead a British Naval expedition to Neverland on a ship that will be redubbed the Jolly Roger by Killian after his brother's death. After being betrayed by the king, Killian chooses a life of piracy. In the TVCU, the Jolly Roger's fate is told is the Pirates of the Caribbean films. And in fact, the inference was that Liam would become Davy Jones. The fact that Killian takes the ship means that Killain must not be from the TVCU. Another is in the most recent episode, "Going Home." When the curse is enacted again, everyone is sent to their home realms, except for Henry, because he was born in the TVCU, and for Emma, because as the savior she was born to break the curse. So that means Killian (Hook) must not be from the TVCU. So he must have come from a realm very much like the TVCU, and one that actually seemed to match up time period wise.
c. 1869--"Manhattan"--Rumplestilskin is branded a coward for fleeing as a soldier on the battlefield and deserting his unit. His family is ashamed and he becomes an outcast of his community.
c. 1869--" The Crocodile"--Rumplestilskin's wife runs off with Killian, but Rumplestilskin believes she is kidnapped.
c. 1882--"Desperate Souls"--Rumplestilskin kills the Dark One and obtains his power, becoming the new Dark One.
c. 1882--"Nasty Habits"--Rumplestilskin rescues his son Baelfire, who had been lured by the Pied Piper, Peter Pan, to Hamelin. Pan is recruiting lost boys for Neverland.
c. 1882--"The Crocodile"--Rumplestilskin meets Smee, who wants to trade Rumpy a magic bean in exchange for immortality. The deal is interrupted when Rumpy sees his wife and Killian. He learns the truth that she left him. His wife kidnaps Smee and they use the bean to escape to Neverland.
c. 1882--"Manhattan"--Rumpy learns from the seer the prophesy of a boy who will be his undoing. He kills the seer and gains her powers. Rumpy's son Baelfire is lost through a portal and ends up in London of the TVCU. Baelfire then meets Wendy Darling, and ends up abducted by Peter Pan, and brought to Neverland. He will remain there for many years without aging, as time stands still in Neverland. Peter will then kidnap Wendy and force her brothers to do her bidding. It should be noted that indeed this is the Wendy of the TVCU, so that means the events of Peter Pan happened conflated with the OUAT version. So likely the episode "Second Star to the Right" happened, and then the events of the original novel PETER PAN, and then the kidnapping and forcing the boys into servitude. However the flaw with this is that Tinkerbell and Hook aren't in Neverland yet. The only way to work around that is to go with the basic premise from "Think Lovely Thoughts" that since Neverland is a reality that exists in dreams, time operates differently, in a way that makes no sense to a rational person. Or something. If anyone has better suggestions, please let me know.
c. 1932--"That Still Small Voice"--Young Jiminy is angry at his parents for being evil scam artists. After they use a potion from Rumpy to turn a couple into puppets, he vows to care for the victims' son Geppetto. In order to do so, the Blue Fairy turns him into a magical talking cricket to act as Geppetto's conscience.
c. 1932 to c. 1946--"Red-Handed"--The Second Ogre War occurs
c. 1946--"The Miller's Daughter"--The classic Rumplestilskin story, sort of. Cora is a poor woman who is sick of treated poorly by the royalty. She stands up to them and brags she can spin gold, and so they lock her up and tell her to do so. Rumpy appears and offers to teach her in exchange for her first born. She and Rumpy fall in love, and Rumpy teaches her magic. She ends up marrying the prince though, and realizing her love of Rumpy is holding her back from revenge on the king, she removes her heart, thus breaking Rumpy's.
c. 1947--"The Miller's Daughter"--Cora gives birth to Regina.
c. 1951--"The Shepherd"--When his wife can't bear children, King George turns to Rumpy who arranges to take from a peasant farmer one of her two newborn twins.
c. 1974--This is the era when Regina kills young Snow White's mother and becomes the Evil Queen. Seen in "The Queen is Dead", "The Stable Boy", "We Are Both", "The Doctor" and "Quite a Common Fairy". Also during this era, Rumplestilskin, with the aid of the Hattter, meets Frankenstein in the Land Without Color, aka the land where magic is called science, as seen in "In the Name of the Brother" and "The Doctor". Tinker Bell also loses her wings during this era in "Quite a Common Fairy".
c. 1983--ONCE UPON A TIME--Most of the flashbacks happen during this era, and most of the fairy tales take place here. This includes the OUAT Fairly Tale Land versions of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES, LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, PETER AND THE WOLF, SLEEPING BEAUTY, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ROBIN HOOD, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, KING MIDAS, CINDERELLA, MULAN, THE LITTLE MERMAID, HANSEL AND GRETEL, ARTHURIAN LEGEND (THE SWORD IN THE STONE and THE LADY IN THE LAKE)
1983--MEDUSA, PINOCCHIO
1984--Events of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, which is evidence that OUAT Wonderland is not the same Wondeland from James' blog nor is this Alice the same TVCU Alice. Placement was tricky. It had be before the curse sent the Knave and Hatter to Storybrooke but after Cora left Wonderland and returned to the Enchanted Forest. Cora returned to the Enchanted Forest with Hook not long before the curse, so Anastasia must have become the new Queen very quickly after, as she is indicated to have been the Queen during Alice's first visit.
1984--Just before the curse, Emma and Pinocchio travel to the TVCU in a magic wardrobe.
1984--The curse is enacted. Kurt and his son Owen are camping nearby and witness the purple smoke of the cures in Maine, near where Storybrooke is forming. Regina ends up killing Kurt. Owen gets away. Regina enacts another spell to make Storybrooke invisible to outsiders, temporarily. Pinocchio abandons Emma at a foster home and runs off with other orphan boys.
c. 2001 to c. 2002--Emma meets Baelfire in New York City. They live a life of crime. She gets knocked up and goes to jail.
2002--Emma give birth to Henry, but gives him up. (Note that in the second curse revision, at this point she doesn't give him up, but keeps him and raises him, and they live happily ever after.) Mr. Gold (Rumpy) arranges for Regina to adopt Henry.
2012--Just before the start of the series, Pinocchio plants the book he has written about the Enchanted Forest in the closet of Snow White aka Mary Margaret. She passes on the book to Henry, her student, who has been noticing that time-lock the town in in, and how nothing in the town changes but him.
2012 to Present--ONCE UPON A TIME--There are many alternate dimensions whose origins are unknown, but there are many things parallel. One such dimension is the Enchanted Forest, where a different version of fairy tales happened in an ambiguous once upon a time. However, many of these characters found themselves trapped in the town of Storybrooke, in the TVCU, with amnesia,and apparently not aging, though not aware of it, which is part of a what we para-scholars call a time lock. Here Belle's Beast was actually Rumplestitlskin, and she is introduced being locked up a prisoner of Snow White's step-mother. Cinderella has also appeared. This show is full of "Easter egg" crossovers with Lost. Check out this site to see them all.
So I've concluded that the Enchanted Forest is indeed in the Rift, as are other realities like the Looniverse, Wonderland, Narnia, Hell, ect. I have also concluded that the island from Lost was part of the Enchanted Forest. Interestingly, it seems that the characters of Storybrooke were living there timelessly until the spell was broken at the start of the show. This timelock is similar to what exists in Riverdale. Interestingly, Riverdale too seems to be slightly existing between two dimensions (TVCU and Looniverse.) I may consider that the shows that are in the Bongo Universe may actually exist in a timelock, existing in both the Looniverse and TVCU, explaining some crossovers that seem to happen in one or the other reality, plus the fact that Win included Family Guy in the Crossover Universe.
- James Bojaciuk adds: Hrmm. That the Evil Queen can manifest as black smoke reminds me of a theory my friend Tess and I came up with: that the black smoke is a disembodied Great Old One who exists entirely independently of the man in black, just as it existed independently of everyone else it assumed the form of. Once Upon a Time seems to hint that it survived the incident on the Island, and has moved on to Storybrooke to further its goals.
- Idea! The black smoke might very well be Nyarlathotep. Both manifest as either swarthy men (see Lovecraft's "Nyarlathotep") or as a cloud of darkness (see Lumley's Elysia, Brennan's "The Willow Platform"). In Lovecraft's own "The Dreams in
the Witch House" he manifests himself as the Black Man.Toby O'Brien also adds: It's a Toobworld Dynamic conceit that the 7th Doctor's final speech about visiting a place where the people are made of smoke meant that he had visited the Island of 'Lost'..... and in the first episode the town clock was stuck at 8:15......I see the numerical sequence as being a crossover since there's something universal about them of great power and significance.
Both act as agents of temptation, and both are identified with dreams. Both the smokey man in black and Nyarlathotep employ an Egyptian motif. I think this is proof positive that the black smoke is Nyarlathotep.Ivan Ronald Schablotski also addes: Just remember that they eat Apollo candy bars in Storybrook, Maine, so it should be the same reality as SCRUBS and LOST. Just discovered another Lost / Once Upon A Time connection: Emma's car has a Geronimo Jackson bumper sticker. That's a reference to a fictional band whose hit song "Dharma Lady" was featured on LOST. Also, Emma Swann and Mary Margaret drink MacCutcheon whisky. This is a fictional brand of scotch whisky used throughout the LOST series. Yes, there are many, MANY easter eggs alluding to LOST. Pretty much anytime someone mentions a number, it's one of THOSE numbers! But I can't personally count those kind of references as crossovers.
2013--ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 2 AND SEASON 3 (FIRST HALF)--According to the Once Upon a Time Wiki, Greg Mendel's arrival took place a year after Emma came to Storybrooke, and this includes all the events up to his kidnapping Henry and bringing him to Neverland. These events continue up to "Going Home".
2013--"Going Home"--The most recent episode as of this writing. Regina says Emma has been in Storybrooke these past years. I'm going to assume that she means two years, with the first season starting in the beginning of 2012 and "Going Home" being near the end of 2013. If someone has contrary information, let me know. Henry is said to be 11 here.
2014--"Going Home"--The story ends one year later.
2014--ONCE UPON A TIME ON WONDERLAND--Alice comes from a realm that is just like Earth, except in the 19th century. Time must operate differently in both Wonderland and Alice's realm, since 30 years has passed from a TVCU perspective but clearly Alice has only aged about 15 years. We can't blame it on the curse, though. The curse did not affect Wonderland or other realms, except in cases where Regina willed it for specific other worlders like Victor Frankenstein. And even if we did want to blame the curse, then Alice would have only aged 2 years and would still be a child. Prior to the start of the episode, Alice made one other journey back to Wonderland, to kidnap the White Rabbit to offer to proof to her father. However, she meets Cyrus the Genie and falls in love. She travels with him until she thinks he is killed. She returns home and is locked up in a mental hospital, until freed by the Knave and White Rabbit at the start of the pilot episode.
AS SEEN ON TV: RUMPELSTILTSKIN
From Wikipedia:
- The TV show Once Upon a Time is set in a world in which all fairy tales coexist, including Snow White, Little Red Ridinghood, and even Alice in Wonderland.
TVCU CREW REVIEW
Here's what the Crew has posted lately about Once Upon a Time.
I'm not up on my Nordic runes. Is that Thor's hammer Mjolnir that Neal found in Rumplestilskin's cabinet?
http://pmctvline2.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/once-upon-a-time-thor-hammer1.jpg
http://pmctvline2.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/once-upon-a-time-thor-hammer1.jpg
I just watched the most recent episode of "Once Upon A Time in Wonderland", and I noticed that the Red Queen's list of monsters includes the Sarlacc from "Return of the Jedi" - presumably since they're both owned by Disney now. I just hope we won't be seeing a crossover with "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
The third episode of ONCE UPON A TIME: WONDERLAND has the Red Queen looking through a book of horrors to threaten Alice with. One of these horrors is the Sarlacc, which she states would take thousands of years to digest her. This places the world of STAR WARS into the same multiverse as ONCE UPON A TIME.
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